There was a point in the NCAA tournament opener Thursday when Boston University couldn’t get a shot on net.
Then the Terriers couldn’t miss.
Cole Eiserman scored twice, once from below the goal line in the third period, and Jack Hughes had a short-handed goal and two assists in the final period as Boston University advanced to the regional final for the third straight season with an 8-3 victory over Ohio State at Huntington Center.
The Terriers, seeded second in the Toledo Regional, overcame three one-goal deficits that could have been larger if the Buckeyes had finished chances.
Ohio State left the door open and BU went barging through in the third period with five goals on just eight shots.
“We started getting pucks to the net, recovering pucks and that’s when our offense started to take over a little bit,” BU coach Jay Pandolfo said. “Listen, we’re fortunate we have some guys on this team that can finish. They don’t need a lot of chances to put the puck by the goalie. We saw that tonight.”
A shot from the outside of the right circle by defenseman Aiden Celebrini gave the Terriers their first lead of the game at 4-3 just 2:18 into the third period, and Hughes added to the advantage with a short-handed goal on a 2-on-1 rush just over three minutes later.
Eiserman then scored his second of the game by throwing the puck on net from below the goal line to the right of the net after his rush was initially foiled. The puck bounced in off Ohio State goalie Logan Terness, who threw up his glove in response.
“Those are the fun ones,” Eiserman said. “It definitely felt good seeing that one go in.”
Jack Harvey added a goal with less than six minutes remaining and Cole Hutson scored into an empty net for BU (22-13-2), which will play either regional No. 1 seed Michigan State or Cornell in Saturday’s regional final. The Terriers are looking for their third straight Frozen Four appearance.
Joe Dunlap scored twice for the Buckeyes (24-14-2) and was close to having a third that could have changed the tone of the final period. But his shot from the slot in the final second of the second period crossed the line after time expired, and the score stayed 3-3.
BU scored three equalizing goals in the second period, by Eiserman, Quinn Hutson and Matt Copponi. The last two were part of a stretch of three goals between the teams in 42 seconds.
Eiserman snapped home a shot off a faceoff to make it 1-1, but Dunlap gave the Buckeyes the lead again less than four minutes later after Terriers forward Devin Kaplan was sent to the box for roughing.
Quinn Hutson made it 2-2 on a BU power play after a give-and-go with Cole Hutson at the top of the slot. But the Buckeyes answered 30 seconds later when Thomas Weis launched a 2-on-1 rush out of the defensive zone and Max Montes snapped in a shot from the right side.
The lead lasted only 12 seconds, however, because Cole Hutson created another chance from behind the net that Copponi buried for a 3-3 tie.
The second-period flurry by the Terriers made up for an opening 20 minutes in which the Buckeyes had almost all of the offensive-zone time. Ohio State started a stretch of 15 consecutive shots on goal early in the first period, and the pressure included a goal and two near-misses.
Jake Dunlap got a touch on Aiden Hansen-Bukata’s shot from the right point to force BU goalie Mikhail Yegorov to kick it out with his right pad. Joe Dunlap was there to put home the rebound.
Ohio State nearly made it 2-0 shortly after the end of its first power play when Thomas Weis’ shot got through Yegorov and sat in the crease. The Buckeyes’ Patrick Guzzo had a chance to poke it in but Terriers defenseman Gavin McCarthy got in the way.
Guzzo had another opportunity on Ohio State’s second power play of the opening period but Joe Dunlap’s pass to him at the back post went between his legs.
“That’s hockey, right?” Buckeyes coach Steve Rohlik said. “That’s the way it goes. I thought we played two pretty good periods. We had a great push in the first. Even the second, they had a couple quick answers which we didn’t want to see. But we were still right there to start the third.”
The Buckeyes never were able to extend a one-goal lead to two.
“Two-goal lead, I feel like the way we play, too, it’d be hard for them to come back,” Ohio State captain Davis Burnside said. “But we weren’t able to capitalize on some good chances that we had to get a two-goal lead. And kudos to their goalie and their players. They did a great job of keeping it that way.”
The Terriers went nearly nine minutes of the first period without attempting a shot. The Buckeyes largely kept them out of the offensive zone but ended the frame with a Weis hooking penalty to give BU a power play to open the second period.
That opportunity also ended in next to nothing for the Terriers, who got one shot on goal — a long Quinn Hutson attempt that Logan Terness turned aside with his left pad — and a long Tom Willander attempt that Terness didn’t see through traffic but went wide.
Once the Terriers got going in the third period, the Buckeyes didn’t have an answer.
“With our speed and our skill, that’s when we are able to put more goals on the board, do more stuff that we want to do,” Eiserman said.
